The Review - RESTAURANTS Published: 6 Decemebr 2007
Phil Daniels (right) with Aroma Spice owner Moin Bakth
Phil adds some spice to his Parklife
When he’s not feeding the
pigeons, actor Phil Daniels gets an enormous sense of well-being from curry, as Simon Wroe discovers
BACK in Britpop’s mid-nineties heyday, Phil Daniels captured the zeitgeist with his swaggering narration to Blur’s Parklife, name-checking pigeons, binmen and “vorsprung durch technic”. The star of Scum, Quadrophenia and most recently EastEnders continues to derive an enormous sense of well-being from his park life, living as he does just a few minutes walk from Hampstead Heath on Savernake Road, Gospel Oak, and playing football for the NME and the Arsenal Celebrities Team, despite being an avid Chelsea fan.
And, to misquote the song, curry is a preference for the habitual goer of what is known as Aroma Spice, Phil’s local Indian restaurant on Fleet Road. “I’ve done all the curry houses round here but this is the best,” he confides as we take our seats on a busy Friday night. “They’re always really friendly and they’ve got a great takeaway too. Spicy food is my favourite kind of thing, though I’m a bit scared of vindaloo.”
Aroma Spice owner Moin Bakth leaves the vindaloo in the kitchen on our visit, but produces everything else imaginable.
We have specials, created by Mr Bakth and his brother-in-law, of Bagari Gusth hyydrabadi lamb, Butter Murgh chicken, Xacuti Chicken as well as Phil’s garlic Lamb and his wife Jan’s King Prawn Jalfrezi (all at £7.25).
I have a sizzling hot Beguni King Prawn (£11.25), spinach baaji and coconut rice (both £3.25).
Mr Bakth is quite secretive about the recipes of the 50 or so special dishes, not seen on any other menu, which have been passed down through generations and now given a modern twist.
When we try the food, it is easy to see why. It is all delicious, with tender lamb, zingy king prawns and endlessly inventive marriages of spicy, savoury, sweet and fragrant flavours.
Phil, 49, grew up in King’s Cross and studied drama at Islington’s Anna Sher School, before his star went into orbit with the seminal 1979 Who-produced film, Quadrophenia. “I was never a mod or a rocker,” he says, “I was like Ringo Starr – a mocker. But I knew from my own childhood where Jimmy [his character] was from and what he was like.” “We really believed when we did it that we were tough,” he laughs. “If you watch the film we’re not, but we think we are and that’s what so wonderful about it.”
He gets a bruising glint in his eye when he mentions the foxes on Savernake Road, as reported in the New Journal. It transpires that Phil’s cat was also a victim of the so-called “rogue fox”, said to prey on Gospel Oak cats. “I don’t dislike foxes – I’m just bitter that my cat got bitten in half by one. “I don’t want an epidemic of foxes to be treated as just normal fox behaviour. I think there should be a forum on foxes, that we should talk about it.”
Phil has just finished a two-year stint as Kevin Wicks in the BBC soap EastEnders, which he describes as “hard work”. “You end up doing 21 scenes a day,” he says. “You learn how to be able to do it, but it takes a lot. There’s only so many times you can go through a crisis,” then, in a thespian accent, “there’s only so much acting you can do”.
His character leaves the Square on New Year’s Eve and Mr Daniels has plans to “retreat” to Spain for a while, to “have a think” about what comes next.
Then the talk turns to the New Journal football team and his pensive look is replaced by the Parklife glint again. “We’ll play you,” he grins, “we’ll smash you 29-nil.” * Aroma Spice
98 Fleet Road, NW3. 020 7267 0444.
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